Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • New Orleans Mandarin immersion accepting applications until Friday

    International School Algiers campus is taking applications for Mandarin Chinese program until Friday

    Published: Monday, January 09, 2012, 4:20 PM     Updated: Monday, January 09, 2012, 4:22 PM

    The Algiers campus of the International School of Louisiana is accepting applications until Friday from families wanting to join its first kindergarten class to be taught in Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese language immersion program will open in August, becoming the first class of its kind in southeastern Louisiana according to an announcement from the school.

    19wbinternational1Susan Poag/The Times-PicayuneThe International School of Louisiana Algiers campus.

    The program will start with kindergarten and add grades over time.

    Parents can obtain applications at the school, 502 Olivier Street in Algiers, or online. Anyone interested in more information may call the school at 504.274.4571.

     

    More available here

  • 6th grade Mandarin openings in San Francisco

    The Mandarin immersion program of the San Francisco Unified School District will graduate its first 5th grade class this spring, and the first year of middle school Mandarin will begin in Fall of 2012 at Aptos Middle School. The program at Aptos will consist of  four classes in English (English, Math, Science, Art/Music/PE) and two in Mandarin (Mandarin, Social Studies.)
    There are openings for up to 36 students in the 2012-2013 class, but  only 25 graduating from the Starr King Elementary school pioneer class. So there are at least 11 spaces open for students who can speak, read and write Mandarin.
    Aptos is one of the most sought-after public middle schools in San Francisco. If you have a child who’s been in a Mandarin immersion program up to 5th grade, or a strong Saturday program, or who has been to school in China, these openings could be a possibility for you.
    Aptos has an honors track and the principal is committed to making sure MI students have access to honors in all non-Mandarin academic courses.
    To find out more, call Aptos at (415) 469-4520. I’m not sure how out-of-district transfers would work, but the principal, Mr. Dent, should be able to answer that. You can also email Beth at immersioneducation@gmail.com

  • Beaverton, Oregon Mandarin immersion charter enrollment open now

    Hope Chinese Charter School Hope Chinese Charter School (HCCS) is a public elementary school providing a bilingual education in English and Mandarin Chinese. The HCCS immersion program challenges students in all academic subjects while also giving them high proficiency in two world languages. Open Enrollment Begins in January 2012

    Our open enrollment period is January 2 through January 20, 2012. If space is available, applications will continue to be accepted after January 20th to fill any remaining openings. For the 2012-2013 academic year, we will be offering Kindergarten through second grade.

    Our website address: www.hopeccs.org

    Hope Chinese Charter School will be in the Beaverton School DIstrict
    boundary and eventually grow to a K-8th school. We will be 75%
    (Mandarin) Chinese in grades K-2 and gradually become 25% immersion in
    the middle school grades.

  • Some reasons why there’s opposition to New Jersey’s proposed Mandarin immersion charter school

    Some useful background on the issues behind opposition to New Jersey’s proposed Mandarin immersion charter school.

    In the Suburbs, Charter Schools Raise Concerns About Local Control

    Can a local school district block a charter from opening or refuse to fund it?
     print | email | share

    Credit: Marilyn Joyce Lehren
    Lili Meddahi, a Maplewood third grader, decorates a protest sign against charters.

    When a charter school opens in a gritty urban neighborhood, few parents and officials argue that kids in the district don’t need an alternative to the local public schools. In a leafy New Jersey suburb — which may be home to some of the best schools in the country — charters can spark off a battle between skeptics and believers. The former often dismiss charters as “boutiques,” and argue that they’ll sap increasingly scarce dollars from local schools. The latter want their kids to have more choices and challenges — like Mandarin language immersion — and think their school taxes should pay for them.

    Ultimately, the issue comes down to local control. Should school districts have the right to bar a charter from opening in their midst, as well as the right to refuse to pay for it?

    Those questions were very much at issue on Friday night in Maplewood, an Essex County suburb, where about 100 parents, local officials, and state lawmakers showed up at a community center to protest a proposed world language school making its second try for charter approval.

    Please read more here.

  • Long-time supporter of Mandarin immersion new Palo Alto school board president

    New school board president a veteran of education wars
    Former probation officer, lawyer, got hooked on schools as a Jordan parent
    by Chris Kenrick
    Palo Alto Weekly Staff

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    Taking the gavel for the second time, new Palo Alto Board of Education President Camille Townsend says she spends a lot of time “poring over research” to grasp the issues.

    “The school district is so complicated — from K-12 curriculum to construction to architecture to bond management to bond sales to athletics, including equipment, fields, coaching staff — and you have to get a feel for the issues so you can give direction.

    “It’s not OK to say, ‘I don’t know construction, so I want to let someone else deal with that.’ You can’t do that,” she recently told the Weekly.

    First elected in 2003, Townsend is a veteran of school controversies that have included creation of the district’s five-year-old Mandarin Immersion program — she was a consistent supporter — and the ‘math wars’ that periodically surface over curriculum.

    She was in the minority on a controversial 3-2 vote in 2009 to adopt the K-5 mathematics textbook “Everyday Mathematics.” And most recently, she was in the minority on the contentious 3-2 vote last May to revamp the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic calendars to begin the school year earlier in August so as to end the first semester before the December holidays.

    Please read more here

  • Anti-charter, Mandarin, rally big in New Jersey

    Rally Brings Out Supporters and Local Officials in Favor of Charter Reform and Against the Proposed Hua Mei Charter

    BY   |  SATURDAY, JAN 07, 2012 7:45AM  |  COMMENTS (0)

     

     

    Speaker is Assemblywoman Mila M. Jasey

    For residents of Maplewood, South Orange and West Orange, the news that their school districts might be getting a new charter school was not met with universal acceptance. In fact, many oppose not only the Hua Mei charter school, which would offer a Mandarin-immersion curriculum, but also the process by which new charter schools are approved (or rejected) in New Jersey.

    Please read more.

  • Houston Chronicle likes Mandarin immersion idea

    Mandarin program makes sense

    HOUSTON CHRONICLE
    Updated 05:49 p.m., Monday, January 2, 2012

    Beginning next year, the Houston Independent School District will offer a magnet school program for elementary-age students in which core subjects will be taught in Mandarin Chinese – the most-spoken language in the world. The program will be at the former Holden Elementary on West 28th Street.

    President John F. Kennedy said that the Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word “crisis.” One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, it’s important to be aware of the danger – and to recognize the opportunity. Appropriately, students in this Mandarin language immersion program will learn that wisdom in more than one way.

    Please read more here.